Georges St. Pierre doesn’t lack for opponents

Everybody’s calling out Georges St. Pierre. Even fighters who aren’t in the UFC. Especially fighters who aren’t in the UFC. Makes it easier to take on the welterweight champ when you’re in a different promotion. Kind of like taunting the lions at the zoo.

Strikeforce middleweight champ Jake Shields has Dan Henderson in his headlights but has expressed a desire to move down to his natural 170 pounds. That would put him on a collision course with newly crowned Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz, who also happens to be Shields’ Cesar Gracie training partner. So that fight’s not likely to happen. Instead, he’s floated the idea of fighting GSP, which of course requires he leave Strikeforce for the UFC, which is not unlikely at all.

Diaz, meanwhile, says he wants to fight GSP next. Presumably he’s aware that they’re in different promotions, although you never know given Diaz’s penchant for smoking pot.

A little closer to home (as in, a fighter who’s actually currently signed to the UFC), Diego Sanchez has his sites set on the welterweight belt. After three fights a 155 pounds, including one of the most lopsided beatings in UFC history at the hands of lightweight champ BJ Penn, Sanchez has decided to move back up to a 170 pounds in hope of an eventual encounter with GSP. He’ll start down that path at UFC 114 (likely scheduled for May 29) against John Hathaway, a 3-0 UFC undercarder.

Okay, and while he’s expressed no interest in fighting GSP, Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem says he’d happily sign with the UFC as soon as they show him the money. That would be a huge loss for Strikeforce, which has a fairly solid heavyweight division. Then again, since he hasn’t defended his belt in two years it really wouldn’t be much of a loss at all.